"All your examples are ways to counter the problem of the lack of informations. We need the UI because we need to compensate the limit of our representation. Instead I envision the removal of the HUD when the representation will be so good and self sufficient that an UI will just be superfluous since the game experience already delivers in the first person all the feedback the player needs."
I disagree. A UI doesn't compensate for limited in-game representation, it enhances it. In real life if you hit a person (not that I'd condone mindless violence, but lets say you were defending yourself from an attacker!) you would not have any indication of the % of their "life" that you just took away. There ARE statistics in real life but these are far more complex and entirely hidden away so that our perceptions of them ARE limited.
In a game with no HUD the statistics would still be there in the background. The very nature of today's gamers and their abilities to fast-track themselves to the 'reward' (bypassing content if neccessary) means that, as immersive as a UI'less game would be, there will always be players who WANT to see more than a graphical representation of action. They don't just want to see that they have damaged an Orc, they want to know exactly what type of damage they have inflicted and the percentage of the Orc's health they have diminished. They want a statistical 'hyper reality' because they want to have the 'edge' on other players, since competition (whether than be through PvP or through advancing your character further than a competitor) is a prime force in the game for many.
Having the statistics there in the background but completely inaccessable for the player would simply be frustrating for the majority of gamers today. Being rewarded with an 'experience' will never be as good as being rewarded with something tangible (an item with impressive stats and bonuses) from a game point of view.
The ONLY way 'experience' would be a game reward is if the experience were so immersive that it would be on par with reality but we're getting into the realms of some kind of Star Trek 'Holo-Deck' type future, which is not going to be something happening any time soon.
Whilst I very much enjoyed your article and agree with a lot of points, what you're essentially saying is, "Hey, wouldn't it be amazing if games were REAL! Why don't modern games try to be more LIFELIKE?"
The answer to that is quite obvious - because we don't have the technology available. I'm sure as technology advances to the point where such a thing looks like it might be visible on a horizon somewhere, then games will start to be developed which steer in that direction.
Re: Breaking the immersion: The Faked Dragon
"All your examples are ways to counter the problem of the lack of informations. We need the UI because we need to compensate the limit of our representation. Instead I envision the removal of the HUD when the representation will be so good and self sufficient that an UI will just be superfluous since the game experience already delivers in the first person all the feedback the player needs."
I disagree. A UI doesn't compensate for limited in-game representation, it enhances it. In real life if you hit a person (not that I'd condone mindless violence, but lets say you were defending yourself from an attacker!) you would not have any indication of the % of their "life" that you just took away. There ARE statistics in real life but these are far more complex and entirely hidden away so that our perceptions of them ARE limited.
In a game with no HUD the statistics would still be there in the background. The very nature of today's gamers and their abilities to fast-track themselves to the 'reward' (bypassing content if neccessary) means that, as immersive as a UI'less game would be, there will always be players who WANT to see more than a graphical representation of action. They don't just want to see that they have damaged an Orc, they want to know exactly what type of damage they have inflicted and the percentage of the Orc's health they have diminished. They want a statistical 'hyper reality' because they want to have the 'edge' on other players, since competition (whether than be through PvP or through advancing your character further than a competitor) is a prime force in the game for many.
Having the statistics there in the background but completely inaccessable for the player would simply be frustrating for the majority of gamers today. Being rewarded with an 'experience' will never be as good as being rewarded with something tangible (an item with impressive stats and bonuses) from a game point of view.
The ONLY way 'experience' would be a game reward is if the experience were so immersive that it would be on par with reality but we're getting into the realms of some kind of Star Trek 'Holo-Deck' type future, which is not going to be something happening any time soon.
Whilst I very much enjoyed your article and agree with a lot of points, what you're essentially saying is, "Hey, wouldn't it be amazing if games were REAL! Why don't modern games try to be more LIFELIKE?"
The answer to that is quite obvious - because we don't have the technology available. I'm sure as technology advances to the point where such a thing looks like it might be visible on a horizon somewhere, then games will start to be developed which steer in that direction.